


Kites Don't Have Two Strings

by silentraccoonrave



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Stunt Kite, kite flying, literally that's it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-12 19:42:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10498164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentraccoonrave/pseuds/silentraccoonrave
Summary: Completely self-indulgent kite flying date.





	

**Author's Note:**

> me, 1800 words in and realizing lance still hasnt flown the kite yet: i should be writing a hunk pov chapter right now
> 
> semi important thing for understanding the story: this is abt a [stunt kite](https://prismkites.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/prism-kites-quantum-p7-flying-sky-2.jpg), which has two lines… not one like a normal kite… like that probs doesnt make much sense so click above or google stunt kites if you need a visual
> 
> EDIT: i added a sentence or two to the part where shiros abt to launch the kite cause i realized i left out some details that are kinda essential if you dont know anything abt stunt kites

The grass swayed gently in the wind as Lance stepped out of the passenger’s side of Shiro’s pickup truck. They were parked in the middle of a large field out in the country, far past the outskirts of the city where they lived.

Lance hummed skeptically as he scanned the field around the truck. The gravel road Shiro had driven them down cut through the forest and out into middle of the field, where it widened into a small parking area. Thick trees bordered the edge of the field on either side of them in the distance, but thinned out across from the truck, where Lance could see the blue sky through the branches and hear the faint crash of waves against rocks.

“Not bad,” Lance said lazily, stretching and kicking his door shut with his heel. Shells crunched under his sneakers as he wandered over to the edge of the gravel area. He kicked at some grass and waited for Shiro to finish getting whatever he had brought out of the truck.

Truck doors slammed twice, and then Shiro was by his side, taking his hand and pressing a kiss to the side of his head.

Lance leaned into Shiro’s side and smiled. “So, why are we here, flyboy?” he asked. “You didn’t drag me out here to murder me, did you?”

He felt Shiro’s laugh more than heard it, rumbling against his shoulder.

“No, Lance,” Shiro chuckled. “I’m not going to murder you. I thought I could teach you how to fly a kite.”

Lance turned to face his boyfriend with a confused look. “You what?”

Shiro held up a neon green canvas case in his prosthetic hand and beamed. “Kite flying!” he said happily.

Lance stared between Shiro and the canvas case for a full 10 seconds before laughing and rolling his eyes. “Of all the things to teach me,” he said affectionately. “You dork.”

Shiro shrugged unapologetically and stepped out into the field, tugging Lance along behind him. The grass brushed past their calves, barely reaching up to their knees. Once they were a fair distance downwind from their truck, Shiro let go of Lance’s hand and started stamping the grass down in a circle.

“What are you doing?” Lance asked curiously, watching as Shiro cleared a large circle around him.

“I’m making room to put together the kite,” Shiro explained easily, waving the neon green case again. “It doesn’t just pop out ready to fly.”

“Why didn’t we do that back by the truck?” Lance asked. “There was plenty of room there.”

Shiro shrugged. “It’s harder to carry kites in the wind. And I didn’t want the strings to get tangled. Now stop complaining and help me.”

Lance sighed dramatically and helped him even out the circle. Then they knelt in the middle of it, and Shiro unzipped the case.

He pulled out a folded bunch of fabric and some plastic poles, which he handed to Lance. Lance tried to twirl one of the poles between his fingers, but it tumbled away from him. He scooped it up off the ground and turned back to Shiro.

Shiro had unfolded and spread out the bunch of fabric and was watching Lance with a small smirk.

“What?” Lance asked defensively.

“I didn’t say anything,” Shiro said with another smile. He directed Lance through assembling the poles and attaching them to the rest of the kite, and soon the kite was dancing in the wind with the red and blue line connectors hooked around Shiro’s fingers. It was larger than Lance expected, easily longer than he was tall, with the nylon fabric stretched taut over the frame.

“Now get the lines out,” Shiro said, jerking his chin over at the case. “They should be down at the bottom.”

“This?” Lance asked, holding up a black plastic spool of nylon string with two thick colored loops hanging off it.

“Yes,” Shiro nodded. “Unwind the strings enough that you can connect the ends to the kite.”

“These ends?” Lance asked, holding up the thick woven loops, “Or these?” He held up two ends with red and blue wrapped elastic cords and black metal clips attached to them.

“The second ones,” Shiro said. “Attach them to the same color loop in my hand as the clip.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lance said, unwinding a few feet of string and sticking the plastic spool under his thigh so he wouldn’t lose it. He carefully clipped the lines onto the loops and took the kite from Shiro. The moment Shiro let go, Lance could feel the wind tugging and pulling on the giant sail in his hands.

Shiro stood up with a grunt and bent to pull the spool of lines out from under Lance’s thigh. “I’m gonna unwind this all the way and get the kite up in the sky. Then you can get used to flying it without worrying about how to get it into the air. Will you launch it for me?”

“I- How- What do I do?” Lance stuttered nervously.

“Don’t worry,” Shiro said soothingly, kissing the side of Lance’s head again. “Just grab it by the tail here and push it up when I shout ‘Go!’” He mimicked the gesture he wanted Lance to make and smiled encouragingly.

Lance licked his lips and nodded. “Okay, I can do that.”

“Thank you!” Shiro grinned happily and began backing away, unspooling the steering lines and walking between them to keep them separated.

Lance blushed and ducked his head down so Shiro couldn’t see his face. They had been together for over two years, and Shiro could still make him blush over the simplest things. Like saying thank you and smiling. Lance hated it. Shiro said it was cute. One of them had to be wrong, and Lance would never admit it was him.

“Are you ready?” Shiro called from where he stood a good distance away. He had completely unwound and untangled all 85 feet of the steering lines and shoved the black plastic spool into his pocket. The large woven loops connected to the steering lines were around his wrists, the blue on his left and the red on his right. He was holding his hands out away from his body and grasping the edges of the loops gently in his fists.

“Yeah!” Lance called back, heaving himself to his feet without letting go of the kite. “Just one second!” He quickly let go of the right hand line connector and grabbed the top of the kite, pulling it towards his body. Then he left go of the left hand connector and grabbed the tail of the kite, where Shiro had told him to hold it.

Very slowly, Lance let go of the top of the kite and raised it above his head. He could feel the wind trying the tear the kite out of his hands, but he didn’t let go.

“Ready?” Shiro called again.

Lance nodded, then realized Shiro might not be able to see it. “Yeah!” he called again.

“OK, go!” Shiro yelled.

Lance shoved the kite up into the sky and felt the wind yank it from his grasp. He stumbled backwards and stared as it rose up into the sky, wobbling slightly before steadying and soaring upwards. He looked over at Shiro and saw him squinting up at the sky, frowning slightly as he coaxed the kite higher and higher.

Shiro shot Lance a quick look and grinned before turning his eyes back up to the sky. “Are you gonna stand there staring all day, or do you want to try to fly it?” Shiro called playfully.

“Nope, I’m good!” Lance said, flopping back down in the circle of flattened grass. It was a nice day, and the sun was warm on his skin. No need to ruin it embarrassing himself by crashing Shiro’s kite. “You have fun with your toy, I’ll be over here napping!”

Shiro laughed loudly, but didn’t protest. Lance rolled onto his back and folded his arms behind his head. He was going to get grass all over his back, but he didn’t mind. He let his eyes flutter shut and prepared to slip into a light doze.

Until an ungodly ripping noise made Lance jerk back up to see Shiro’s kite plunging down straight towards him.

At the last possible second, the kite suddenly flipped back over and soared back up into the sky. Lance scrambled to his feet and spun to look at Shiro. Shiro was still standing where he had originally been, unconcerned and squinting up into the sky.

Lance looked back up at the kite. Nothing seemed to be amiss. It was soaring peacefully in the sky occasionally twitching from side to side as Shiro pulled on the steering lines.

Slowly, Lance lowered himself back to the ground and closed his eyes.

For a long time, all he heard was the rustle of the wind in the grass and the sound of waves crashing against rocks in the distance.

Then the ungodly ripping sound tore through the air again, but when Lance’s eyes snapped open, all he saw was Shiro’s kite gliding gently back and forth above him. Lance lifted himself up on an elbow and squinted suspiciously at his boyfriend. Shiro seemed to be just as at ease as before, but something about his stance radiated smugness and self-satisfaction.

Lance looked at Shiro long and hard, but he just waved at Lance and returned to tugging on the steering lines.

Lance carefully laid back down. This time, his eyes had barely closed before he was jerking up as the noise came bearing down on him. Shiro’s kite was hurtling down towards him, this time flipping up barely inches before the wingtip would have brushed his nose.

“Shiro!” Lance yelled, turning to glare at his boyfriend. There was definitely a smile playing around Shiro’s lips now. Lance pulled himself to his feet and marched over to Shiro. “What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

“Playing with my toy,” Shiro answered blithely, not taking his eyes off the sky.

“Playing?” Lance squawked. “I almost died!”

“No, you didn’t,” Shiro laughed, shooting Lance an exasperated look.

“Yes, I did!” Lance insisted. “You nearly hit me with that kite! Twice!”

“I had it under control,” Shiro said, crossing his right arm over his left and pulling down before yanking his hands back apart again. The tearing sound from earlier came from above, but this time much shorter, like a hornet buzzing by.

Lance jumped slightly and glanced up at the sky. The kite was floating lazily above their heads. “What do you just do?” he asked suspiciously.

“A figure eight,” Shiro said proudly, repeating the motions. Above them, the kite swung down to the left, completely reversing direction and crossing the steering lines before whipping back around and up to complete the rest of the eight.

Lance gasped in amazement. “You can do that?” he cried. “Show me how!”

“I thought you were taking a nap,” Shiro said wryly.

“Not anymore!” Lance declared happily. He slid behind Shiro’s back and wrapped his arms around his waist. “I’m too busy learning how to fly a kite from my amazing boyfriend!” He hooked his chin over Shiro’s shoulder. “Please?”

Shiro scoffed softly. “Now he wants to know,” he murmured under his breath. His eyes were still fixed on the kite overhead as he guided it back and forth in broad sweeps through the sky.

“I heard that,” Lance stage whispered. He tightened his arms around Shiro’s waist and rocked him from side to side. “Please teach me?”

“That’s why I brought you out here, Lance,” Shiro said with a laugh.

“Thanks, babe!” Lance cried, leaning forward and kissing Shiro on the cheek. Shiro turned faintly pink. Lance smirked. Still had it.

Lance pulled away from Shiro and looked curiously up at the kite above them. “How are you going to teach me?”

“Come stand between my arms,” Shiro said, letting the kite pull his arms above his head so Lance could duck between the lines.

Once Lance was pressed back against his chest, Shiro pulled his hands together in front of them and grabbed the thick blue loop around his left wrist in his right hand. He quickly pulled his left hand out of the loop and grabbed it from the outside. Shiro pulled the blue loop and his right hand apart and glanced up at the sky to make sure the kite was stable.

“What are you-” Lance began to ask, but Shiro hushed him gently and repeated the process with the red loop around his right wrist, struggling slightly when the woven fabric of the loop got pinched in the wrist joint of his prosthetic. Soon the empty loops were dangling from his hands by the elastic connecting them to the nylon lines.

“Put your hands through the loops,” Shiro instructed gently.

Lance licked his lips nervously and tried not to jerk on the strings as he slipped the loops around his wrists.

“Good,” Shiro said encouragingly. “Now hold onto the parts where it’s sewn together.”

Lance pinched the sections between his thumbs and pointer fingers, trying to imitate Shiro’s grip from earlier, but it didn’t look quite right. He tried grabbing the loops with his whole hands instead and found that they fit perfectly in the grooves of his clenched palm. He tugged on the strings curiously and turned his head to look at Shiro. “Now what?”

Shiro grinned mischeviously. “Now I let go and you fly the kite.”

“Wait, no!” Lance squawked, panicking slightly. “I don’t know what I’m doing!”

“Okay, Lance,” Shiro laughed. “I’ll help you get the basics down. I’m going to let go of the lines for a few seconds. Can you hold the kite on your own?”

“No!” Lance said unhappily. Shiro huffed another laugh and let go of the string. Lance felt the full force of the wind pulling on the kite and the loops in his hands. He stumbled forward a few steps, but Shiro’s hands reappeared over his own, pulling him to a stop.

“Don’t let the kite win,” Shiro warned. “You want to feel tension in the string, but you don’t want to let it blow you away.”

“Uh-huh,” Lance said nervously. “Don’t blow away. Got it.”

“You’re doing fine,” Shiro said soothingly. “Now let’s learn how to turn it.”

“What?” Lance cried. “I’m still figuring out step one!”

“You can figure it out as you go,” Shiro laughed. “Now if we pull our left hand down and push our right hand up, it turns left. See?”

Shiro moved Lance’s hands like he said, and the kite curved to side in the sky above them. The wind was pulling the slack from the right line taunt again and raising the right side of the kite above the left and bringing the spine of the kite parallel to the ground.

“And we do it the opposite way to turn right,” Shiro continued. He raised Lance’s left hand and lowered his right. The kite lazily flipped directions above them, slowly turning to point to the right instead. “That’s not too difficult, is it?”

“Um,” Lance said uncertainly. “Why don’t you just keep holding on for a bit.” He could feel the kite tugging on his hands, and he wasn’t sure he knew how to keep his grip on the strings yet. Plus he had a nice beefy boyfriend pressed against his back, so win-win really.

“The wind isn’t too bad today,” Shiro said. “I think you’ll be fine.” He lifted his hands off of Lance’s and stepped backwards.

“No, no, no, no, no!” Lance whined, rapidly trying to look between the kite above him and his boyfriend behind him, but failing miserably.

“Lance, calm down,” Shiro said gently. “Look at the kite.” Lance did. “Is it falling out of the sky?” It wasn’t. “Then you’re flying it. And you’re doing it right.” Lance grunted in unwilling acceptance. “Get comfortable with gliding and turning it, and then I can teach you the fun stuff.”

Lance hummed in acknowledgement and began gently tugging on the steering lines, getting a feel for the kite and how it moved in the wind. He felt Shiro’s presence begin to move away from behind him and almost panicked, but Shiro assured him he was simply walking to get the case out of their stamped down circle and put it back in the truck.

By the time Shiro was back from the truck, Lance was slicing the stunt kite back and forth through the air, trying to see how close to the grass he could get it before he danced it back up to its highest point.

“And you were worried you were gonna crash it,” Shiro said, amused by Lance’s antics.

“Hush, Shiro,” Lance replied haughtily. “You are watching a master at work. Don’t break my concentration.”

“A master, eh?” Shiro asked. Lance tore his eyes away from the dancing neon green shape above him to look at Shiro. Shiro was watching him with a faint smile on his face and eyes dancing with laughter.

“Yes,” Lance said. He drew himself up regally and sniffed at Shiro. “A master.”

“Have you figured out how to make a figure eight yet?” Shiro asked curiously.

Lance shook his head. “No, only what you told me earlier.”

“Try crossing the strings,” Shiro suggested.

“Or don’t cross the strings!” Lance cried. “What if they get tangled? How will they get undone? What if the kite crashes?”

“Trust me,” Shiro said, resting a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “It won’t be bad.”

“Fine, but you’re helping me,” Lance huffed. “Get over here, you big lump.”

Shiro laughed and walked over behind Lance again. He wrapped his hands around Lance’s and guided the kite up its highest point. “Ready?”

“No,” Lance replied easily.

Shiro snorted and crossed the strings. He pulled Lance’s hands through the same motions he had made earlier that day. He crossed Lance’s right arm over his left and pulled down with both hands to bring the kite into a dive. As it plunged towards the ground, Lance heard that same ungodly ripping noise from before. Shiro seemed completely unconcerned, pulling Lance’s right and left hands back apart and then up and down away from each other. The kite flipped and danced through a figure eight in the sky as the lines tugged it back and forth.

Lance felt a rush of exhilaration, and his heart started pounding in his chest. So this was why Shiro loved kite flying. The taunting tug of the kite against his fingers and the thrilling uncertainty of whether the kite would flip out of its dive before it crashed into the ground.

He turned to grin at Shiro over his shoulder.

“Let’s do that again.”

**Author's Note:**

> ive only ever flown stunt kites on beaches, never in fields, so there might be some stuff thats not entirely accurate, but im relying on you, the reader, not being familiar enough with stunt kites to know the difference so sorry abt that :)
> 
> and jsuk you can launch stunt kites w/o assistance but tbh its way easier to have someone hold it
> 
> i did exactly zero extra proofreading once i finished, so lemme know if theres anything wrong


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